Ask Amy: Boyfriend’s hoarding messes with relationship
Hoarding is not a character flaw, but a heartbreaking mental health disorder.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (nami.org) connects hoarding with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Hoarding Cleanup (hoardingcleanup.com) provides a directory of (fee-based) cleanup services and mental health providers specializing in hoarding behavior.
Dear Amy: My wife and I are staying with my sister and her family for a while because our house is being renovated.
While staying with them, of course, we have witnessed how they do things, and I have a serious issue with how my sister is raising her children, who are 10 and seven.
They’re pretty nice kids, but honestly so far in life they are fairly useless. My sister and I grew up on a farm and by their ages we were extremely competent in taking care of ourselves. We also had barn chores after school.
Her children don’t really do anything to help the family at home. They don’t make their own beds (my sister does it), don’t put their school lunches together (my sister does it), and they only take care of the dog when an adult reminds them.
I feel strongly that she is raising them to be useless, entitled people. I believe it might be my duty as her older brother (and their uncle) to be honest about this.
My wife disagrees. We agreed to run this past you.
– Concerned Uncle
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